this thread, comparisons between people like fahey, hendrix, and haino, its fucking pointless. they are all amazing and the best at thier respective genres. its like comparing the powers of zeus, poseidon, and ares. all three of them are powerful as hell, just different areas of expertise.

All conversations on this board are, technically, fucking pointless. I'm just answering the question: No, I do not believe Jimi Hendrix is the best guitarist ever. He's one of the best... he's also the most well-known.

I mean, and this is unrelated, but there's people that pretend that Mars Volta dude and Slash from Guns N Roses are great players. They couldn't hold a candle to someone like Trey Spruance or Seiichi Yamamoto. But then those guys aren't very well-known, comparatively.

There is no such thing as "Best" or "Greatest", there's simply... whoever the most people know of automatically becomes the best. Obvious but needs to be said.

I'm not discounting at all the contributions Hendrix made to music. Just sayin. Besides... influence, actual skill at playing, whatever techniques a guitarist pioneered, great riffs, great solos, etc... defining best is almost impossible when you take everything into account. So, again, Hendrix probably wins by default. So.. sure. He's the best. End of the thread.

Andres Segovia? come on man, for hundreds of years everyone, from blues to flamenco to rock n roll to country to jazz used exclusively acoustic guitars.

No, but he may have been

I'm always impressed to hear the beautiful sounds he coaxed into being. Anyone who can't see his greatest is a narrow minded fool too into being the coolest kid on the block to see the truth. i.e. saying he is wouldn't be cool on this site, right?

It's a good question though. There are just too many variables to make an intelligent choice. What's the difference between Jimi Page and Eric Clapton, Prince and Hendrix, Black and Cobain, What about punk, what about robert johnson and lead belly, how about thurston moore? What about Glenn fucking Branca.

I'm positive your post didn't say BLACK guitarist before...

Or maybe I'm a bad reader.

haha, it did.

Black Francis guitarist, i should have been more specific. Frank black knows how to write a good song. And the great songwriters must be considered in the best guitarist bullshit contest. Black can write a better pop song than Hendrix!

must mean Frank Black, but didn't mention Joey Santiago...


Yeah, but many of valid's suggestions I find valid. But let's not forget Keith Richards, Mick Taylor or Chuck Berry for that matter.

Thanks for not automatically pulling the race card on me when i typed the word Black.

writing a better pop would mean that bernie taupin is the master of all.

Alright. Well, couple that with the fact that Fahey released albums for about 40 years and never dropped in his consistency, even when doing electric guitar-only albums. He did avant-garde stuff, noise stuff, straightforward folky stuff, blues, and even experimented with some industrial at the end there. Not to mention some of his releases, like Mill Pond EP, sounded like Stars of the Lid before Stars of the Lid was even around.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, focusing solely on talent and not influence or anything else, I'd say Lenny Breau was the best guitarist I've ever heard.

You folks need to pick up a few issues of Drag City's Galactic Zoo Dossier, in particular those issues that feature a series of trading cards titled "Damaged Guitar Gods" feature some key influential guitar players from many different time periods and within many genres.

Jimi was a great guitarist, and rock music owes a lot to him.

Best guitarist ever is sort of a silly notion as luxinterior pointed out on page 1.

The best at what he did.

I haven't listened to enough Hendrix to decide if he's the best or not. I don't think any of my favourites would be up there with the best, in terms of skill. I think the most skilful of my favourites would be Dave Murray and Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden.

This guy is better:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8

I am.

EVOLghost is.

See....

best, no

awesome, yes

there is no best, it's music, beyond talent it's all relative.

edit: I can't be arsed.

No!

I am

no.

there are too many to pick a best but he is one of the best, ever. i couldn't tell you, i haven't heard every guitar player in the world like some of you apparently have.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really don't think there is such a thing as "Best". So if Hendrix really is the "best" guitarist ever, that means he's better than every single person who plays guitar in the entire world? How do we even assume one is the absolute best at something? Hendrix is good, definitely one of the better guitarists through history, but I don't think he's the greatest ever.

I respect what he did for music and had a cool style, but best? No sir.

~Jeremy~

I'd say I'm damn good.

I'd also say I'm terrible.

Lenny Breau is definitely the best, as in the actual definition of the word "best", as in the most talented in the world.

((Jimi's got a little bit of bitch in him.))
\/